Most everyone knows the story. Gordon McLendon’s KLIF took Dallas by storm in the 60s and until he sold it in the 70s, no other station could touch it. By the end of the decade, however, there were TWO stations vying for the Top 40 crowd: the station McLendon KEPT, KNUS 99, and 1150 KVIL.
Here’s a short scope of Cat Simon ‘in format’ at the former AM powerhouse. Simon is upbeat and personable… and with that great shotgun approach to Top 40 that AM stations still had in 1979, it sounds awesome! There’s no reverb (unlike early KLIF, they never used it), but there are some quicky jingles that sound good in context out of stop sets.
A great talent, the Cat held court at KHJ circa 1972-1973. One of the best.
Based on an entry in Wikipedia about KVIL’s history and the jock only mentioning “Stereo 103.7” in the aircheck, 1150am had not yet received any nighttime authorization from the FCC and was still a daytime-only signal in the Big D. Also, even though the presentation is very upbeat, the powers that be at KVIL considered what they were doing at this point was “AC”, not Top-40. AC or top-40, it’s a great sounding station that really served its listeners quite well!
NO NO NO…This is absolutely NOT the
Cat Simon (Bill Todd)….from K H J and
WRKO….please !~!!!!
I grew up in Dallas and my dad’s company did all the jingles & production music for Ron Chapman and KVIL during the late 70s and early 80s.
KVIL-AM simulcast Ron Chapman’s Morning Show and Larry Dixon’s PM drive show, but was a separate station with separate studio from 9am until 3pm. They “mentioned” the FM station once an hour because Chapman knew AM was on the way out.
THIS Cat Simon did, I believe, THREE “tours of duty” at KVIL, including a brief period on PM drive in the late 80s/early 90s.
this aircheck was from 103.7 kvil FM…not 1150 am.
the am SIGNED OFF at sunset every day in 1979.
I know this because at the time of this aircheck, I would have followed Cat at 11pm!
Hey Steve – Please send me an e mail when you can. I need some info on Randy Robins from you.
Karl Phillips
k4gzz.karl@gmail.com
KVIL-FM? From what I’ve heard and read about that station, not only was that what would come to be known (or was known even then?) as adult contemporary, but is regarded as being the first such station and having switched to that format in the late ’60s or very early ’70s. So maybe KVIL-AM was top 40. But if that was a daytimer, and you, Steve, followed Cat Simon at 11 at night, then that aircheck had to have been from KVIL-FM and not KVIL-AM.
Will the real Cat Simon please stand up: I think it was Bill Todd KHJ. Scott Shannon named me Cat Simon at WQXI Atlanta 1974. Saying that the animal names were catching on fast on the radio. We had a coyote mccloud, a super Fox ect: fun years but I had to move on glad I did I never once looked back: thanks to everyone for the great 25 years of playing for a living. Peace: Cloyd Moll: Aka Cat Simon:
Thank you again Scott Shannon you changed my life God bless you.
This was not the AM, KVIL 1150. Because it was a daytimer, Cat worked on the FM 103.7 nights.